Hello December

I finished my writing for the day, and thought I'd stick my head in to say hi.

HI.

Today is the 12th of December. Only 13 more days until Christmas.

I'm looking forward to it. Not because of the presents - there won't be many this year. I pretty much have everything I need.

Oh, I could use a new car. But that's a bit over Santa's budget. This year.


I do hope to have a white Christmas. Not like last year's massive inundation. Just a nice, thick, heavy snowfall that hangs around a few days, then melts and becomes groundwater.

They're predicting snow flurries for this evening, and tonight.

Snow flurries, I say.

This time last year, I was holed up in my townhouse, surrounded by several feet of cold, white stuff that never melted until February.

Today, once again, I am holed up beside a warm fire, laptop in hand. Adding words and scenes to AWEN STORM. The word count passed 98K today. Dear rebels, she is progressing, and will soon be done.

The first draft, at least.

Hopefully, in time for Christmas. A white Christmas, if we're lucky.

~ That Rebel, Olivia J. Herrell writing as O.J. Barré

O.J. Barré is author of the upcoming AWEN trilogy, a rollicking fantasy set in 2042AD, that combines ancient, current, and future history. Book One, AWEN RISING, is complete and in query. The first draft of Book Two, AWEN STORM, is nearing completion, and Book Three, AWEN TIDE, is swirling in the mists of creation.

Deadline Extended

Since last I posted, I have been working diligently to finish Draft One of AWEN STORM. My goal - my self-imposed deadline - is November 30th.

Courtesy Freepik.com

The week after my "stuck" post, I spent twenty-four hours, butt in chair, writing. In the ensuing weeks, my average writing time has hovered around twenty hours a week. But even better, I've written close to 22K new words.

At this point, our druid heroine is in place for the last hurrah, the dragon Keepers are winging their way to the magical isle of Beli, and the Reptilian bad guys are scurrying to perfect the system that will allow them to wrest AboveEarth from the humans.

Current word count for AWEN STORM is 92K, with several character arcs yet to complete. Which means, the final count for Book Two of the Awen Trilogy will likely end up at 110-120K.

Bottom line?

Today is November 30th. Deadline day. And AWEN STORM's first draft is not complete.

I have reasons.

1. My day-job hours have increased.
2. My sister and bro-in-law are in the middle of a major move, with a hard deadline (closing date today, move Saturday!), and I'm helping as much as possible.
3. My muse was feeling used and abused, and refused to sit still to write over the long Thanksgiving weekend.
4. Blahdy, blah, blah...

So.

Due to the paralyzing effect of the resentment, and resistance, created by the intense deadline-pressure, I decided to be kind, and give myself (and my muse) a break.

Courtesy Pixabay.com

My new deadline is December 31th.

Yeah, yeah, that's four more weeks. Well. thirty-one days. But to be honest, my first deadline was arbitrary, not taking into account the (real) amount of work required to finish. 

Yes, Virginia, there is an optimist, alive and well, within O.J. Barré.

So, dear rebels, the push continues. And in the grand scheme of things, THE END is so close I can taste its sweet rasa.

~ That Rebel, Olivia J. Herrell writing as O.J. Barré

O.J. Barré is author of the upcoming AWEN trilogy, a rollicking fantasy set in 2042AD, that combines ancient, current, and future history. Book One, AWEN RISING, is complete and in query. The first draft of Book Two, AWEN STORM, is nearing completion, and Book Three, AWEN TIDE, is swirling in the mists of creation.